So, Ursa has gone to visit her Dad, who is recovering at home. He tells Ursa not to feel responsible, because she isn’t. He’s on a waiting list for a prosthetic arm, and she mentions that she could get Emva to make a cool prosthetic with like, tools and stuff. Sarolt isn’t impressed, having heard stories of Emva’s unreliability from someone she works with as Kojak – it’s a rival of Emva’s you haven’t met yet. Imrus, though, is fairly enthused by the idea of a Treasure Planet style tool arm.
Merlin, on holiday to try and catch up on research and get his breath back, has his brunch rudely interrupted by Mr Pyrite, who mentions that he was able to smell the connection Merlin currently has with the watchtower of Order. It doesn’t matter what terms they agreed, if Order decides that debt isn’t coming back in fast enough, it’ll send in the repo guys with zero notice, to use a particular metaphor. He tells Merlin to get his affairs in order, and to try and enjoy his eggs benedict.
Nora, having totally lost track of Morris, has signed up – through the Institute – to do a bit of employee outreach work experience at Open Sky Capital, as a means of checking her sister’s doing okay. In the process, she finds out that Open Sky Capital currently employs just three people besides Laniakea herself: Ella, Urknall the security guard, and someone that’s in the employee register as ‘It’s Steve’. Ella doesn’t actually do anything; she just makes up appointments for Laniakea to cancel on a whim. She’s being paid 60k a year for this. Nora can’t stop laughing.
Back at the Carpenter household, Ursa’s on her way out when she bumps into Adrienne, who is her usual dickhead self. She blames Ursa for the explosion. She’s carrying a camera tripod and it’s not just because Vesper was looking at one in real life when they were thinking of why Adrienne was there. She drives away and Ursa flips her off. Family drama!!
On the beach, Merlin is wandering along trying to get things straight in his head. And who should appear to make things worse but Lopodite, who basically says she’ll arrange a way out of him getting the Mantle of the Judge (Order) so he doesn’t have to die or hurt anyone, and all she wants is the bones for the labyrinth back. She lets slip that Morris has gotten a body, by referring to him as ‘robot boy’, too. Merlin won’t play ball and she tells him to keep an open mind, and to enjoy his eggs benedict. Merlin already finished his eggs benedict back at brunch. She tries to kick him in the balls but he misty steps away.
Back at the Open Sky canteen, Laniakea, Adagio, Ella and Nora are sat at a table with a naked woman on it. It’s It’s Steve. She’s covered in sushi. Nobody but Nora is eating any. Laniakea has just set this spread out because it’s what high powered business executives like her do, and when Nora gently questions this, Laniakea has a full-on breakdown about how she’s restructuring in light of her not even being in the top 100 strongest Dragons anymore, after the fiasco at the last convention. Nora suggests putting on a convention of her own, and convincing some other dragons she’s still important. She even mentions that the Caliber Institute could be a respectable partner for this. Laniakea says ‘Yes… if I were to own the Caliber Institute, I would be two business geniuses’.
They also talk a little bit about Holy power, which Nora seems to have now. It comes from faith in something, not necessarily from Jesus. When asked what she has faith in, Nora says ‘I have faith in shooting people’.
(Somehow Laniakea mentions having a dream about roasting Merlin on a barbecue spit, and she’s so depressed in her dream that she can’t even bring herself to eat him. I am sorry)
When next the three meet, Merlin explains a bit about one: Lopodite and Morris working with one another. And two: the fact that it’s looking like his deal with Order is going to default pretty soon. They rack their brains to try and think of how he could complete the deal, or wriggle out of it, but are interrupted by an ‘ongoing incident’ in the treasury.
Down there, they find Cimimi and a tetchy Director Brynner. Brynner reveals that his dog, Mr. Fluffy Biscuits, has escaped (having gotten the zoomies) and is currently scurrying around the treasury. It’s very dangerous to have an animal down there risking waking up Cimimi’s brother, which is definitely the only reason Brynner has put out an emergency announcement on this.
When asked to describe Mr. Fluffy Biscuits, Brynner explains that he’s mostly white with patches of off-white (FFFFFF and FFFFFC), that he loves normal dog things like classical music and the Reader’s Digest, and that, despite having the gait and vigour of a rambunctious hound, when he stares into the sunset his countenance takes on a more contemplative caste, as if he really were reckoning with the question of a day truly well-spent.
This description does not get any matches for Locate Creature. Ursa’s illusory classical music and plate of ham are similarly ineffective.
Cimimi then reveals, quietly, that Brynner’s dog is very old and very smelly. This does get a match, and so Merlin does a NIN and pings them closer to dog. They find some treasure on the way.
When they catch up to the hound, some cajoling and animal handling, and animal mage hand-ling ends up with Merlin magically carrying the beast back to his master by the scruff of the neck. Brynner is incensed and says Merlin has to do some unpaid overtime. Merlin says he does that anyway. Ursa offers to take Mr. Fluffy Biscuits to the doggie groomers, and rolls a 400 so Brynner agrees.
Then Brynner’s rotary phone in his office rings so he goes to pick it up, and it’s a text from Laniakea which says ‘I am going to buy you out’.
‘What?’ says Brynner.
‘Gorp,’ says Mr. Fluffy Biscuits.
Roll History 